New website lets you tell UDOH ‘I got sick’

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SALT LAKE CITY - A new website from the Utah Dept. of Health enables patrons to notify the health department, restaurants and potential customers if they believe a restaurant got them sick.

Before the new site was launched, patrons who believe a restaurant got them sick call the health department and the complaints are put on paper. Now, they can just go to igotsick.health.utah.gov and file a complaint online for everyone to see.

Patrons fill out a form that asks what kind of symptoms you have, how long you've been sick and who you've been around. Although the site asks for your personal information, they insist it's confidential.

Health officials say the goal is not to target restaurants, but detect possible outbreaks and prevent too many people from getting sick. They say it's also a tool to easily follow up with customers and determine whether complaints are legitimate.

"The goal is to detect outbreaks as quickly as we can and respond as quickly as we can to keep other people in the community from getting sick. We want to partner with restaurants and establishments to work towards this goal because they don't want their consumers to get ill, they want to be serving safe food as well," said Marilee O'Connor, epidemiologist with UDOH.

The state is testing the site through Dec. 10. They say about 40 or 50 people have participated so far. It's projected to go live in Feb. 2013.